| Oracle® Real-Time Collaboration Administrator's Guide 10g Release 1 (10.1.1) Part Number B14495-02 |
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View PDF |
| Oracle® Real-Time Collaboration Administrator's Guide 10g Release 1 (10.1.1) Part Number B14495-02 |
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View PDF |
Oracle Real-Time Collaboration lets you easily configure a single deployment to meet the needs of various lines of business. You do so by creating individual sites for each line of business (sales, support, training, and so on) and customizing system, Web client, conference, and messaging properties for those sites. You can also integrate Oracle Real-Time Collaboration functions into your applications; to do so, you create a site with which the integrating service can interact.
Sites are created by the business administrator. (See "Setting User Roles" for details about assigning a user the business administrator role.) For every site created, the integrating application or line of business uses a unique authentication token along with the site ID to communicate with the Oracle Real-Time Collaboration system.
Creating a site provides the following benefits:
Customized system, Web Client, conference, and messaging properties
Support for custom integrated flows that can bypass the Web Conferencing Client pages or the Oracle Messenger contact window to start Web conferences, chat sessions, or chat conferences
Support for custom Web Conferencing console behavior based on the properties set for the site
Site-level reports that give the same depth and breakdown of data as the global Oracle Real-Time Collaboration site reports
Custom user interfaces, including a separate application login page listing public conferences only for the specific site
Custom branding to uniquely identify the integrating line of business
Even if you do not create additional sites, each Oracle Real-Time Collaboration system has one default site called "RTC." This global site is created at installation and cannot be deleted.
This chapter contains the following sections:
In an enterprise, a single deployment of the Oracle Real-Time Collaboration system can be used by various integrated applications supporting lines of business such as a sales department, a support department, and so on. For example, you can integrate a service that starts a Web conference from your company's sales Web site. Or you can integrate a service that displays users' presence information from Oracle Messenger in your company Web pages.
You use sites to provide customized views of the Oracle Real-Time Collaboration deployment for each of the integrating applications. Each site is assigned a unique site ID and authentication session token as you create it. The integrating application uses the site ID and token to pass information to and from the site.
An application can integrate with Oracle Real-Time Collaboration in either of the following ways:
It can programmatically invoke Web Conferencing or Oracle Messenger functions using Oracle Real-Time Collaboration Integration Service calls.
If the application has a browser-based interface, it can invoke the Oracle Real-Time Collaboration Web Client pages directly.
In either case, creating a site allows the Oracle Real-Time Collaboration system to provide a customized service for each integrating application.
For complete information about using integration services, see the Oracle Real-Time Collaboration Application Developer's Guide.
Table 8-1 lists the properties that let you enable or disable different features of Oracle Real-Time Collaboration Integrated Services. For security reasons, you may want to prevent access to some of these services. For complete details about the syntax of each property, see "Enabling Integration Services".
Table 8-1 Properties that Control Integration Services
| Property | Default Behavior |
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Allows integrating applications to get an authentication session token and enables all programmatic access for a site. |
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Allows programmatic access to Configuration Services, which let clients query and update configuration information from an Oracle Real-Time Collaboration deployment. |
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Allows users to access the Embeddable Presence option from their Preferences pages. This option lets them embed presence links in Web pages or e-mail. |
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EmbeddablePresenceGuestChatEnabled |
Prevents nonregistered users from starting chat sessions from embedded presence links. |
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Allows programmatic access to Post-Conference Services to get or set publish options for a finished conference, or to get the URL to play back recorded conferences. |
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Allows programmatic access to Conference Management Services to schedule, update, delete, or list scheduled conferences. |
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Prevents programmatic access to Presence Services that display individual or group presence status, or a presence URL in a Web site. |
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Allows programmatic access to Reporting Services to list conference attendees, details of a finished conference, or list finished conferences by date or by conference ID. |
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Prevents nonregistered users from starting or participating in chat sessions through any programmatic access. |
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All integration services are available, including Oracle Messenger integrations with Oracle Web Conferencing, the Oracle Real-Time Collaboration Add-In for Microsoft Office, and integrations with Oracle Calendar, Oracle Collaborative Portlet, and Oracle Workspaces. |
You can enable or disable access to some site information from integrated services by using the Privileges tab under the Sites tab.
Select Sites, then click the Details icon for the site you want to edit.
Select Privileges.
Set one or more of the options on the page:
Allow guest users (nonregistered users) to chat: If this item is turned on, integrated services can support chat with a guest chat user. If it is off, integrated services cannot provide chat support for guest users, such as the "answer group" scenario described in "Managing Groups for Group Presence".
This setting corresponds to the SiteGuestChatEnabled property.
Allow access to presence information for a user or group: If this item is turned on, integrated services can access and display presence status for users or groups in the Oracle Real-Time Collaboration system. If it is off, will not work.
This setting corresponds to the PresenceServiceEnabled property. Note that this setting has no effect on whether users can embed presence information in e-mail messages or Web sites, which is controlled by the EmbeddablePresenceEnabled property.
Allow access to conference management features: If this item is turned on, integrated services can schedule, start, update, or publish conferences. If it is off, you cannot use integrated services to create or update conferences in any way.
This setting corresponds to the PreConferenceServiceEnabled property.
Click Apply to save your changes.
The Oracle Real-Time Collaboration administrator creates a site by doing the following:
Log in with a businessadmin account (see "Setting User Roles" for details about creating this account).
Click the Sites tab.
Click the Create Site button.
Create a site, assigning it a Site Name (required) and optional display description.
Click Apply.
The Oracle Real-Time Collaboration system then registers the site and generates a site ID and an authentication token for the site. An application that wants to integrate with the Oracle Real-Time Collaboration system can use the new site ID to make the appropriate calls.
For Oracle Real-Time Collaboration Integration Service calls, the site ID is passed as one of the HTTP header fields in the HTTP request to invoke the service. Any Web page that provides a link to a Oracle Real-Time Collaboration page, or any user logging in to Oracle Real-Time Collaboration, can provide the site ID as a URL parameter. For example, the following URL can be used to open site 123456.
http://hostname:port-number/imtapp/app/prelogin.uix?siteID=123456
In this example, hostname is the name of the Application tier on which Oracle Real-Time Collaboration is installed, and port-number is the port on which the OC4J_imeeting process is running. Entering this URL into a browser returns an Oracle Real-Time Collaboration home page for site 123456 with any customizations created as described in "Customizing Site Properties". Any conferences started from the Web Client pages will have the attributes defined for conferences for that site.
You can assign users to be site administrators, just as you create business monitor or business administrator roles for your entire Oracle Real-Time Collaboration system. You assign a user the business monitor or business administrator role for the site using the modifyRole command as follows:
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/imeeting/rtcctl rtcctl> modifyRole -siteId siteID -username username -rolename businessadmin|businessmon
When a site administrator logs in to the site using the site ID as described in "Accessing a Site", he will see the Oracle Real-Time Collaboration Web Client page tabs appropriate for his role:
Regular site users see the Home, Schedule, Materials, and Archive tabs.
Business monitor site users see the regular tabs and the Monitor and Reports tabs.
Business administrator site users see the regular and business monitor tabs, and the Sites and System tabs.
For more information about the modifyRole command, see "Setting User Roles".
Note:
Site-level administrators can perform system administration tasks within the site. However, only a system-level business administrator can create or delete a site.After you have created a site, you can set up site-specific properties to control the interaction of users (or of any integrating application) with Oracle Real-Time Collaboration. The definitions of properties given in Chapter 3 note which properties can be set at the site level.
There are four broad classes of properties that affect how users interact with the site:
System and Site Properties: Control the behavior of components and instances for an entire system or site. These properties are documented throughout Chapter 3.
Web Client Properties: Change the look and feel of the Oracle Real-Time Collaboration Web Client pages. Examples of such properties are properties to change the corporate image or text that appears at the top of each Web client page. See "Customizing the Oracle Real-Time Collaboration Home Pages" for details.
Conference Properties: Change the attributes of any conference, whether it is started from the Web Client pages or from the integration service calls. Examples of such properties include the starting collaboration mode of conferences held at this site or the availability of chat during conferences. See "Configuring Web Conferences" for details.
Console Runtime Properties: Individual users can override some conference properties by setting defaults prior to a conference using the Schedule tab, by setting their preferred defaults using the Preferences link on the Oracle Real-Time Collaboration home pages, or by using the Preferences button in the Web conference console during a conference.
Figure 8-1 shows how the various property values in Oracle Real-Time Collaboration are inherited and set. When a site is created, it inherits the default values of all the properties from the system settings. The administrator can then set various conference-level and Web client-level properties for this site, to override the default values. A meeting host or participant can change console properties by setting preferences before the conference, or by updating their preferences during a conference.
Using the rtcctl utility, administrators can control whether some of the console run-time properties can be overridden:
If an administrator for an Oracle Real-Time Collaboration system uses the force -true option when setting a property, then those properties cannot be changed, either by conference hosts, or by site administrators using the rtcctl utility.
If the administrator does not use the force -true option, then conference features can be changed when scheduling a conference using the Schedule tab, or when setting a user sets defaults using the Preferences link, or from the Preferences button in the Web conference console.
See "Setting System, Instance, Component, and Site Values" for more information about the hierarchical nature of properties and how the force -true option works.
Figure 8-2 shows a custom login page for the Big Company site. The title at the top of the page shows the company name, and the opening descriptive text and heading have been customized for the company's Eastern Sales Division. The login links at the top of the page display icons. The properties used to customize this page are:
WelcomeHeaderText="Oracle Real-Time Collaboration for Big Company, Inc. Eastern Sales Division"
WelcomeHeaderDescText="Welcome to the Oracle Real-Time Collaboration Site for the Eastern Sales Division of Big Company, Inc. Log in to this site to hold sales conferences and download the Oracle Messenger."
The "Big Company, Inc." name appended to the top of the page is the Site Display Name assigned to this site when it was created using the Sites tab.
Figure 8-2 Oracle Real-Time Collaboration Login Page Customized for a Site
There are two ways to modify properties for a site:
Use the rtcctl command with the -siteId option. See Chapter 4 for details.
Use the Sites tab of the Web Client pages to set Web conference console defaults. See "Using the Sites Tab to Set Conference Defaults for a Site" for details.
You can set defaults for all Web conferences on a site by using the Sites tab. On the Sites tab, find the site whose defaults you want to edit and click Details, then Conference Properties to view the current default settings for conferences held at this site.
Any changes you make to this page take effect immediately. Any conferences started after you click Apply will use the new defaults.
Table 8-2 lists the prompts shown on the Conference Properties page under the Sites tab, and their corresponding Oracle Real-Time Collaboration properties.
Table 8-2 Conference Run-Time Properties Under Sites Tab
| Item on Conference Properties Page | Property Name(s) |
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Startup Mode |
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Toolbar: Expand Secondary Row |
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Toolbar: Expand help text |
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Toolbar: Autohide |
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Privileges: Presenters use annotation tools |
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Privileges: Presenters send polls |
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Privileges: Presenters switch modes |
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Chat Type: Chat with Host |
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Chat Type: Public Chat |
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Chat Type: Group Chat |
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Secure Communications |
Note:
If users have their own preferences set for some of these items, their preferences will take precedent over any that you set for the site using the Conference Properties page. To force defaults on all site users, use the
setProperty command with the -force true option as described in Chapter 3.Each Oracle Real-Time Collaboration site has a unique authentication token associated with it. Sites such as Oracle Calendar must use the Oracle Web Conferencing authentication token for the siteauthkey parameter in the [CONFERENCING] section of the Oracle Calendar unison.ini configuration file. The siteauthkey parameter specifies the password for the Oracle Web Conferencing account used by the Calendar Server to access the Oracle Web Conferencing Server. See Chapter 3, "Calendar Server Parameters" of Oracle Calendar Reference Manual for more details.
In some cases, it may be necessary to manually retrieve the siteauthkey parameter. To locate the authentication token for a site, do the following:
Log in to the Oracle Real-Time Collaboration Web Client with a businessadmin account (see "Setting User Roles" for details about creating this account).
Click the Sites tab.
Click Details for a site.
The authentication token for the site is displayed.
For Oracle Calendar, the Web Conferencing site authentication token must first be manually encrypted using the Oracle Calendar uniencrypt utility. The resulting encrypted string can then be entered in the [CONFERENCING] section of the Oracle Calendar unison.ini configuration file.
Reports available from the Reports and System tabs from a site page cover only the conferences and processes associated with that site.
The following Usage report data is not available in site reports:
Site metrics in the Web Conferencing section of the Key Usage Metrics report.
Presence and Chat statistics in the Integration Services section of the Key Usage Metrics report.
Top user and top site data in the Web Conferencing report.
Presence Queries metrics in the Integration Services report.
All data in the Presence and Chat report.
If you are logged in as a site administrator or are viewing Usage reports for a site, the data listed here will not appear.
